Combination Chess

This game is intended as a submission for the 39-square contest.

Ok, I admit it, the board is not very interesting or clever. And
the individual pieces aren't all that interesting either. However,
the way they interact should be. This game features the three basic
piece movements from orthodox chess (ie. the rook, bishop and knight).
Two new pieces have been added which are unique to this game and
effect the way pieces interact with each other.

The basic idea is that in addition to its movement abilities,
each piece has a "zone of influence". Any
friendly pieces that are in that zone acquire the movement and
capture abilities of the influencing piece. So, if a rook was in
the zone of influence of a bishop, the rook would essentially have
the move of a queen.

This lets pieces interact in a more dynamic, combinatorial way
than they normally do in chess. A move doesn't merely change the
board position, it changes the abilities of the pieces in the locality
of the moved piece also.

Note: After creating this game I doubled checked Hans'
web site to make sure there wasn't already a game like this, but alas, there
was (Dynamic Chess). I may have subconsiously been influenced by this game, even
though I can't remember having read it.

Zones of Influence

Each piece (except pawns and kings) has a "zone of influence".
Any friendly piece in this zone absorbs the inherent movement and capture
abilities of the piece.
The absorbed abilities are lost when the piece is no longer within the
zone of influence. Zones of influence are marked with the pound sign (#)
in the diagrams below.

King

The King never has a zone of influence. However, it may
be influenced. Note that the King may never move through a
square that is threatened by an opposing piece. There is no castling.

Pawn

Pawns never have a zone of influence. However they may
be influenced. Pawns do not promote, nor do they have an initial
two-square move.

Bishop

The bishop influences those friendly pieces in orthogonally adjacent
squares. It moves and captures as a orthodox chess bishop.

Knight

The knight influences those friendly pieces that are
a one square jump away in any of the four orthogonal directions.
The knight's zone of influence is not blocked by a piece
on an intervening square.
It moves and captures as a orthodox chess knight.

Amplifier

The Amplifier not only gives any friendly piece under its influence
its movement ability, it also gives that piece its influence
zone. For example, a knight in the influence zone of an amplifier, would
then be able to influence any piece adjacent to it, in addition to the
four squares that knights can normally influence.

The Amplifier moves and captures by jumping one square in
any orthogonal direction. The intervening square may contain a piece.
The amplifier captures if it "lands on" an opposing piece.

Note: if an amplifier and an opposing isolator influence each other,
annihilation occurs, and all pieces within either of the pieces' zones of
influence are removed from the board, including the amplifier and isolator.
It is illegal to make a move that would cause one's own king to be
removed from the board.

Example

In this example, the white pawn absorbs the abilities of the Knight,
and the white Knight absorbs the abilities of the rook. The pawn however
cannot move like a rook because it does not absorb abilities that
were in turn absorbed by the influencing piece.

If the white pawn moves one square forward, it loses its Knight move,
and does not gain the bishop move because
the bishop is in the influence zone the of black isolator.

The black Knight, since it's within the zone of the black ampifier,
influences the black rook, so the black rook can move like a Knight.

The white pawn could capture the black isolator, and would also lose the
Knight move, but gain the bishop move (since the black isolator would no
longer be isolating the white bishop).

Initial influences. The following list covers how the pieces
are influenced at the start of the game. All listed pieces have
their normal moves in addition to those listed.

king at d1 or d9: bishop or knight
isolator at b2 or b8: bishop
bishop at c2 or c8: isolator or knight
amplifier at d2 or d8: bishop or knight
knight at e2 or e8: amplifier
rook at f2 or f8: knight
pawn at b3 or b7: isolator or bishop
pawn at c4 or c6: nothing!
pawn at d3 or d7: amplifier, knight or bishop!
pawn at e4 or e6: knight
pawn at f3 or f7: knight